SELF-ESTEEM IN PHYSICALLY CHALLENGED AND TYPICALLY GROWING SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN IN SRINAGAR (J&K)

This study investigated the self esteem in 180 physically challenged and 180 normal school going children selected from various private and government schools of rural and urban areas of four districts of Kashmir viz., Srinagar, Anantnag, Budgam and Kulgam. The urban samples were collected from Srinagar and Budgam districts and the rural samples were drawn from the districts Anantnag and Kulgam. Physically challenged school going children were categorized into three main classes i.e., visually impaired, hearing impaired and orthopedically crippled. The Cooper Smith Self-esteem inventory was selected to measure the self-esteem of the sample. Mean, Standard Deviation (SD) and t-test for significance of difference between means were the statistical measures used to draw the logical inferences from the analysis. The results indicated that physically challenged children had low self esteem than their typical participants. The rural physically challenged school going children and their typical participants had no significant difference (p≤0.05) with respect to their self esteem. Urban physically challenged school going children reflected more self esteem than normal school going children. It was significant to conduct the present investigation because no similar research has been conducted internationally so far.